Master Thespian

This morning Daniel brought to school the Tyrannosaurus Rex he built out of K'Nex. It has a motor attached that enables it to walk and move its arms up and down in a threatening manner. Daniel was looking forward to surprising his teacher with it, but Stephen stole his thunder by dashing ahead, yelling, "Daniel brought his T. Rex! It can walk! He made it out of K'Nex!"

Daniel was irate. "Stephen's not my best friend anymore!" he muttered furiously. "He's...he's...he's my one hundredth best friend!"

An interesting addendum to this story: At the time Stephen didn't seem to care that Daniel was mad at him. He was too busy running around greeting the teachers and other children at Daniel's school. Later, however, he heard me telling Tab on the phone what Daniel had said, and he seemed rather hurt by it. The corners of his mouth went down, and he lowered his gaze. He was an affecting picture of sadness. His sorrow was short-lived, however.

Stephen has always excelled at putting on a pathetic expression when he wants to. Tab and I used to call him "Master Thespian," likening him to the character that Jon Lovitz used to play on Saturday Night Live.

"Acting!" I would declare.

"Genius!" Tab responded.

"Thank you!"

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